1. SONGS WRITTEN BY JOHN D. LOUDERMILK

On these pages I try to give a list of "all" the songs John D. Loudermilk has written and who covered them.
I will never succeed completely, I know, but I try my best to give as many as possible.
In this overview I chronologically ordered the songs which (probably) have been recorded, though I haven't found a cover to each song.
But you could help me make it more complete, mail me!

This is part 1, 1956-1960 The Colonial, Columbia, Universal-Cedarwood years

To part 2, 1960-1963 RCA, Hickory, Nashville, teen, hillbilly and novelty
To part 3, 1963-1969 RCA, Hickory, Nashville, country, bizarre and open minded singer-songwriter songs
To part 4, 1970 & later MIM, Europe, years of retirement
To part 5, Loudermilk singing traditionals and covering other songwriters
To part 6, unknown songs/covers - info wanted!
To a few sound samples of unreleased songs.

"John Loudermilk" (composer credits on the US original 78), "Johnnie Dee" om some other 1956 releases

Most songs in the early years were originally released with "Dee" as composer; later releases give Loudermilk

JDL's first song, and a US top 10 hit!
original on Colonial as "George Hamilton and the Country Gentlemen".← A Baby Ruth candy bar.

When the record came out, the Curtis Candy company, makers of Baby Ruth candy bars,
sent a letter to Colonial record label demanding it be pulled for copyright infringement.
By the time Colonial's lawyer replied, Curtis Candy had sent another letter advising the label
to disregard the previous one: Sales had gone up 500 percent in the last month, as kids were eating
the candy bars more and adults were sending roses and Baby Ruths to their sweethearts all over the country!

Also recorded (overdubbed by George Hamilton!) as "A Rose And A Candy Bar" for radio shows of other sponsors
and the UK-market where the candy bar "Baby Ruth" was an unknown item.
Lyrics

Al Kooper, looking back on his 1970 version:
"I grew up with the GHIV version. Really loved the sincerity of it when I was about 13.
Referring to a rose and a Baby Ruth, he sings:
I could have sent you an orchid of some kind, But that's all I had in my jeans at the time...I think I tried to duplicate that teen sincerity in every song I wrote in my teens and early twenties.
I worship J.D. Loudermilk.
My version was just a jam in between takes of another song on the album "Easy Does It" from 1970.
I was kinda goofing, but put it on the album nonetheless. So, if you hear it, its not ALL together serious."

←the rare picture cover of the 1956 promo release "at present a student at Campbell college"In the original lyrics an innocent Bugs Bunny cartoon is being watched,
but on the Coral single release, Don Cornell changes this into "We may stop lovin', to watch Kim Novak,
but she can't take the place of my honey!"

Two Japanese cover releases, a 7" by rocker Keijiro Yamashita (1939-2011) and a LP by Masaaki Hirao, singer, actor.

Joe Tanner (pic left: Joe ±1945 as a teenager), guitarist of Colonial houseband The Bluenotes, was an important
element in Johnny Dee's early recordings. He arranged "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" and
played the distinctive guitar break on "Sitting in the Balcony".
The Bluenotes (pic right, Joe Tanner (gtr), Pat Patterson, Tom Underwood, Ralph Harrington) played on sessions
for the Colonial label, and recorded JDL's composition "Page One" (see below).
Joe Tanner later worked for Monument and Roy Orbison.
His arrangement of Roy's hit "In Dreams" and playing on "Oh Pretty Woman" are some of his major feats.
Joe's custom made Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar on "Oh Pretty Woman" gave the record its irresistible sound.
Joe was called 'The Absent-minded Guitar Player' around Nashville, as he was constantly forgetting appointments and
studio commitments, even forgetting to bring his guitar to a performance. Joe died in the early 1980's of a sudden heart attack.
(Based on info supplied by Joe's cousin Jim Callahan, who tells about his cousin on his
web pages)

My Big Brother's Friend

Dee

Cecelia Batten had a local hit with the song, see story below.
The Carol Hughes'
(US singer, not the Flash Gordon movie actress) version was even released internationally,
I've got a Norwegian release of it!

Cecelia Batten recorded for Colonial and worked with Joe Tanner and Johnny Dee.
She had two 45 rpm releases for Colonial. I was lucky to be able to contact her, she wrote me about her career:

I was a college student at the University of North Carolina when we cut that.
I remember the duets [see below] with him and I don't know what happened to them.
They were fun and I can't imagine why Orville Campbell, the owner of Colonial Records, never released them.
I never made any more records. A group of University musicians and I were in a talent show and we mocked Elvis Presley
for a laugh. An agent from New York saw it and interviewed me about becoming "a female Elvis Presley"
but I wasn't interested in that!
I had won some small time talent shows and won trips to Miami and Cuba where I sang on radio and television
and preformed in clubs. (Castro was still in the mountains.) I sang with local dance bands in college and had a TV show
with a local disc jockey. Orville took an interest and that is how I got in on making the recordings.
Everyone was so nice and we had a lot of fun. I went on tour to promote the record on radio and TV shows
where I lip-synched the record. Everybody did that way back then.
Johnny Dee and all the musicians were very talented and very nice. They were a few years older than me
and all married to nice ladies. They were very professional and always a pleasure to work with.
We had many laughs together. Johnny always had that great big smile on his face.
I remember one time we were entertaining at a Veteran's Hospital outside of Washington, D.C.
and were getting ready to go on stage when Joe Tanner, the guitarist, discovered he had lost his only guitar pick
in the men's room. All the musicians ran in there to find it.
We got on stage just in time. I never did ask them where they found it. I was laughing so hard I could hardly sing.
Joe was such a sweet guy.
They were fun times and I loved performing. I moved to New York City after graduating from the University
and did a few club gigs and some Off Broadway shows and some singing commercials, but nothing really big.
I was just enjoying life. I fell in love, got married, and had two children.
I sang a few times after that for fun. Some years later two very talented friends from my small town in North Carolina
wrote and produced a musical called "Like Diamond Rings" about a small town's effort to attract industry.
I came down from New York City to sing the female lead. Believe it or not, the show got a good review by the New York Times!
That was my last public appearance. How's that for going out on a high note, if you pardon the pun.
They were wonderful days and they were all wonderful people.I remember them all fondly.
Johnny Dee deserved a lot of recognition. He was an especially talented person and a very good-natured guy
who wrote happy songs. And he wrote a lot of them!

Thank you Cecelia for sharing your memories!
Newspaper clipping from July 1957: Johnny and Cecelia performing in Danville, Virginia

It's Gotta Be You

Dee = Loudermilk

An early photo of Johnny Dee and the Bluenotes. Drummer is Chuck Bergner of Bergner's Music Store, West Franklin Street, where
Colonial Records was located. On the left, guitar Joe Tanner and bass player in the back may be Tom Underwood.
Photo by Hugh Morton)

A rare 45 release on the Smash label, the Teenager's Favourite.
Two sides of Colonial Records released for the Dutch market. Smash was a subsidiary of Artone records, they
distributed recordings of various foreign labels.
On Smash 08-A "Teenage Queen" by Johnny Dee, coupled with Cecelia Batten's "My Big Brother's Friend" as the B-side.

This was, as far as I could find, the only 45 rpm record by Loudermilk ever pressed in Holland.
Thanks to Henk Gorter for information and scans

Page One

Dee

Features vocals by Doug Franklin, the closest to doo-wop a JDL-cover ever came

Some of JDL's songtitles seem to be inspired by biblical phrases, this is one of 'm

Johnny Dee & Bluenotes (Aug. 1957, Colonial 435)

Singing on the Mountain

Dee = Loudermilk

A perfect gospel in a traditional way. Performed by a North Carolina group,
founded in 1946 and still active these days, now as the Carolina Quartet. On this 1957 recording, the group consisted of
Wilson Creech, bass; Vernon Norris, 1st tenor; Radford Munden, 2nd tenor; Jimmy Creech, baritone.
On the original Colonial release, Johnny Dee was credited composer. The song was copyrighted under Loudermilk's name in 1969.

Two songs recorded by Johnny Dee & Cecelia Batten.
This rare Loudermilk duet must have been recorded for Colonial with a single 45 release in mind. But it never was released.
It is probably still hidden somewhere in the vaults of Colonial Records...

Freckles

Dee

Duet song with a male (I've got a little girl, what's her name - Freckles)
and female (My name's Freckles and goodness knows, everybody kids me when they look at my nose) vocal

Asiatic Flu

Dee = Loudermilk

Good novelty song, lyricsJohn D's alias on this record is a wink to Dickens character Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Two pictures by Hugh Morton.
The photos were taken August 22th. 1957, at the recording session for Colonial that took place at
WUNC, Swain Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
Probably at this session, the Ebe Sneezer songs were recorded.
So in fact we see here Ebe Sneezer & his Epidemics, who were in fact Johnny Dee and the Bluenotes.

right: Cecelia Batten at that same session. Not sure what song is being recorded.

Somebody Sweet

Dee = Loudermilk

Billboard's review spotlight, Nov. 1957 of They Were Right: "Dee, who hasn't been able to follow his hit, Sittin' in the Balcony,
with another sofar, may have the right contender with this effort. He registers well with excellent choral support by the
Blue Notes on a simply presented ballad-type with highly effective guitar and drum backing. Teens could go far for it.
Flip is an attractive rockabilly item Somebody Sweet"
When DOT released the single, Billboard's review (Feb. 1958) considered Somebody Sweet the A-side:
"The tune has a folkish, gospel feel. Dee's vocal is rendered with good chorus and ork support. This could step out"
Lyrics They Were Right
Lyrics Somebody Sweet

In 1958 Loudermilk moved from Colonial to Columbia, and dropped the alias Johnny Dee.

Yearbook

Yearbook was the B-side of
Susie's House, a Danny Wolfe composition. The record was offered to deejays with a picture sleeved promotional release.
Lyrics, including 'lost' verse.
JDL performed Yearbook on the Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show (episode 1-18, June 14, 1958) and
Susie's House on Dick Clark's American Bandstand episode 213, May 9, 1958. Does footage of these shows still exist?

John D. Loudermilk (Apr. 1958, Columbia 41165)

Yo-Yo

John D. Loudermilk (Jul. 1958, Columbia 41209)

Lover's lane

John D. Loudermilk (Jul. 1958, Columbia 41209)

Goin' Away To School

Warner Mack was in fact the first to release the song.
On the B-side of Loudermilk's single was a cover of This Cold War With You,
a Floyd Tillman original of 1956

Bob Gallion, a good time honky tonker had a #18 C&W hit with the song,
June Webb was an Opry regular working with Roy Acuff. Bob recorded the song first, June recorded it 6 days later.
But then June's was the first to release, Bob's release was one week later on the market. Anyway, as Gallion's
version was a much stronger performance, he was the one to chart.
The song is an excellent 50s C&W product. lyrics

Another great song. The original version by Mary Klick (see bio below) got little attention.
But when The Chordettes released the song some months later on the B-side of their new 45, the song spread all over the world.

A recent cover is by Adam C. Burke, who learned the song from the 45 rpm record collection of his parents.

Mary Klick, was born in Washington County, Maryland, in the early 1920s, in a family of 10 children.
Mary, a beauty crowned Miss Hagerstown 1948, played guitar and sang harmony in Jimmy Dean's band The Texas Wildcats.
Around 1950, she was working with Rose Lee Maphis in a duet as The Saddle Sweethearts. They were featured
on the "Old Dominion Barn Dance", a radio show for WRVA, aired from coast to coast.
In the mid 1950s Mary worked for Connie B. Gay's Town & Country TV broadcasts, singing with Patsy Cline,
Billy Grammer and George Hamilton IV.
At the end of the decade she was a regular on Jimmy Dean's network TV shows.
She then recorded her three 45-records:
Columbia 4-41048 Castaway/ Humble Heart (Nov. 1957);
Columbia 4-41138 It's Easy To Say You're Sorry / Stay Beside me (Mar. 1958);
Columbia 4-41289 I'm Gonna Catch You Baby / We Should Be Together (Nov. 1958).
These three records did not sell too well. It seems kind of strange that this professional artist,
who got so much nationwide TV fame, released so few sides on vinyl.
Nowadays Mary Klick Robinson lives in Leesburg, VA.
→right rare footage of Mary singing "Bill Bailey"
for Dutch TV (1963), click to play →

This Time I Would Know

The Browns: Jim Ed Brown & two sisters Maxine and Bonnie.

UK-couple Miki & Griff, who covered many songs by the Browns for the UK-market, also released this song in the US in
Sep. 1962, a 45-release on Spruce 102

Arnie (born 1932 in Saskatchewan, Canada) played dance halls with his band until he saw Bill Haley play in Vancouver
and was converted to rock. In a recent interview, he says: I couldn't believe what they were doing on stage.
He was the one that broke the ice.
Arnie started doing Presley songs, and soon was advertised as Canada's Elvis Presley. When he could join a weekly C&W
music show from the CBC Winnipeg for radio and TV, it opened up a lot of work. He toured with Jerry Lee Lewis.
In 1958 he was signed by Decca and moved to Nashville to record. His 4 singles did not give him the break and
he returned to working clubs. In Las Vegas, Derksen remembers: Charles Heston was in the audience, he stood up and shouted Bravo!,
and Sammy Davis Jr walked in with an entourage of 27 people.
In the 1970s Derksen worked in clubs in Seattle, in the 1980s he started performing at senior centers at the weekends
and in 2005, age 73, see picture at the right, he still is doing a few hundreds of shows a year.

A story of talking on short wave Ham Radio with a lady in Paris,
precursor of internet chat contacts. Recorded with Floyd Robinson and JDL on guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano and
the Anita Kerr Singers chorus.

Some later releases incorrectly mention Marijohn Wilkin as co-author of the song

Betty McQuade made the song big Down Under (cover of her 1980s EP re-release)

Famous arranger George N Terry wrote a piano arrangement to the song.
However on the recording no piano is heard, just guitar, bass, a little rhythm and the buzzer of the bus (special effects by Bob Farris).
First release by Billy Graves was a poor monotonous rendition (the record was a #21 local breakout hit in Minnesota in May 1959).

Surprisingly, this obscure record was picked up in Germany to be used for the debut record of Audrey Arno. She was
a German-born singer/ dancer of a French/ Italian circus family. Audrey later
recorded in France some hit records and worked in Las Vegas' Moulin Rouge in the 1970s. She died circa 2004 in Las Vegas.

Loudermilk himself did a great version on the B-side of his Tobacco Road. In Brisbane, Australia the song was
picked up by the radio and it scored a local #27 hit in July 1960, 4 weeks Top 40.
Definitive killer version was recorded in Australia by Scottish born Betty McQuade,
with a great back-up by Melbourne's Thunderbirds. A rock & roll classic.
Betty's hit led to more Australian covers.
The song was eventually voted in a newspaper's poll The #1 Rock song of the 20th century in Australia!

What is the Midnight Bus about? In the song, the Midnight Bus drove from Durham, NC to South Carolina.
Loudermilk told me: In my hometown of Durham, that was the way the kids used to elope.
Now back before everybody had a car, those who either got pregnant or wanted to get married early,
they just got on the bus and went down to South Carolina, 'cause you could marry at 14 down there!
So they'd get on the bus and get married and come back, the next day to tell all their friends: look, we're married, ha ha!

Three times a sheet music publication for Midnight Bus:
Left the Billy Graves original, middle Australian rock star Col Joye (example of a practice common from Australian song publishers
of the early 1960's: put a photo of popular rock/pop recording artists on the cover even though he had not recorded it,
hoping to sell more of the sheet music), and right the Johnny Chester version.

Please Don't Play Number Nine

Loudermilk / Wilkin

Three songs recorded April 1959, not used by Columbia but first released
by Bear Company in 1995 on BCD 15875.

Johnny O'Keefe's cover was a #12 hit down under (pic sleeve of a 1961 EP including his version); in 1962 his version was released in the USA on Mr Peacock 111, but failed to make it
in the States. O'Keefe lived and died like Presley

The song was written early 1959 by John D. and Marijohn Wilkin. Story goes that they had been
sitting for an hour and no ideas had formed into lyrics. "Well John", Marijohn finally mused, "I guess
we've met our Waterloo." John grabbed his guitar and set the rhythm with a few chords. Marijohn, sensing
his thoughts, joined in, "When will you meet your Waterloo?". Half an our later the song was on paper.
John remembers: "It was a song that I didn't have too much faith in. It was a combination
of a couple of old gospel tunes. The bass drum in it came from the fact that I had played bass drum
in the Salvation Army up 'til the time that I was 17 years old.
But after we got through writing and arranging it and the dub session, that's where my interest left. I said,
"I can't see a thing in the world for that song...", so it was strictly Marijohn who took that song and did something with it.
(story and quotes from Darryl E. Hicks' book "Marijohn", 1978).

Though the official lyrics go likeLittle Gen'ral Napoleon of France
Tried to conquer the world but lost his chance...
Stonewall sings "lost his pants"
See complete Lyrics

This rather simple, a bit silly, song sold very well (US top 10 pop) for Jackson.

Single release on Decca (probably Danish sleeve) by Englishman Bob Cort, accompaniment directed by Johnny Douglas.
Bob Cort made fame with his skiffle group, he was a good jazz guitarist and an inveterate practical joker.
But judging by his performance on Waterloo not the best singer in the world.
After the early 1960s friends seem to have lost track of him.

UK-single release on Columbia by The Mudlarks: Jeff, Fred and Mary Mudd, an English skiffle group.
Pic: sheet music

Waterloo was a great hit in Europe: notably in Denmark and Sweden.
Swedish EP releases, by the Q-brothers, Papagojorna and Tosse Bark:

A Danish hit version by the Four Jacks on Odeon, 1959, lyrics in Danish.
Czech release on a 1970 EP, translation by Greenhorns, popular C&W band headed by front man Michal Tučný (1947-1995)

The guitar intro of this great song is by John Loudermilk.
The song was released as the B-side of the #1 mega-hit "The Three Bells" (John also plays guitar on that recording).
Magazine Music Reporter even considered Heavne Fell Last Night as the A-side at the time of release

A great song, swinging, moving, jazzy. Both ladies cover the song in a great, powerful way.
Harvie Vanderpool came from a musical family. Daddy had a gospel quartet and did local radio shows in Dayton, OH.
Harvie was signed to King Records by Syd Nathan in 1954 when she was 13. Her brother Fed Vanderpool recorded as Van Houston for Columbia,
he was the first to record Patches (later Dickey Lee's hit) and Statue of a Fool (later by Jack Greene and Ricky Van Shelton),
but Columbia never released those two as singles as they thought they were too morbid.
More about Sara(h) Northcutt, who recorded the song as "Leav'n Woman", see section below.

Harvie June Van (Jun. 1959, RCA 7548)

Sarah Northcutt (Apr. 1960, RKO Master 1840, as "Leav'n Woman")

Don't Quit

The various artists cd "Honey Doll" revived this obscure
Loudermilk song (missing in the BMI or Library of Congress copyright database)

The record was released in April 1960, and got a 3-star review in Billboard. The fantastic
"Leav'n Woman" was described as an interesting jazz-blues effort.
Who was this Sarah Northcutt who recorded these 2 Loudermilk songs?
For quite a time I had searched to learn more about this intriguing singer, until finally I was surprised when
an e-mail came in and Sara (no h - that was their mistake) wrote to me about her career and the recording:

My agent and I went to Nashville to the RCA Victor Studio to make a recording. When we got there John Loudermilk
was at the studio, and after hearing me sing, he said he would like for me to record some of his songs.
We went to his home and went through some of the songs, and came out with about four or five to choose from.
It was John D. that chose Leavin Woman Blues, which I dearly loved, and Don't Quit for the flip side.
The Jordanaires, who usually backed Elvis Presley, were the backup group on the record. I especially liked Gordon Stoker.
He was very nice to me, and gave me some good pointers. John said he was well plesed with the record and thought it would be a hit.
That was the only recording I did. However, I even had my own radio show while I was going to the University,
and eventually went to Hollywood and sang in a nightclub, Maximes on the strip. As a matter of fact,
I do have a couple of publicity shots, one where I was getting on the airplane bound for Hollywood.
That was a big thing back in those days. I must say, it was quite an experience and one that I wouldn't have missed for the world.

Thank you Sara for contacting me and telling me about the recording! Sara now is practising attorney in California and has been
in practice over 20 years.

(The Ballad Of) Baby Doe

Loudermilk / Wilkin

"Another song Marijohn and I wrote was a song
about The Baby Doe, about the Matchless Mine out in Colorado.
Marijohn had been out there. I hadn't been at the time,
but Marijohn, of course, coming from out there in the West,
had traveled extensively out there and she told me about the mine
and Baby Doe. It was strictly a folk-narrative, and I thought it was a mighty good song",
JDL comments in Darryl E. Hicks biography on Marijohn Wilkin.
The Ballad of Baby Doe also is an American opera (!) of 1956

In 1990 Canadian playwright Joan McLoad wrote "Amigo's Blue Guitar".
In this play dealing with cultural barriers, the song has a central role.
Key character Martha sings it.
Recent cover by Nashville's Laura Cantrell, who released (2011) a great tribute cd
Kitty Wells Dresses.

The Hit Crew (2013, cd Old School Country Classics, Vol. 7, budget cover)

Lonely Is A Word

A sad and beautiful little song, that -being
the B-side of Amigo's Guitar- never really got much attention.

Kitty Wells (Oct. 1959, Decca 30987)

Blue Bells Ring

A surprise cover by Patrizzio Paganessi & Mario Moro,
a very successful French duo in the years 1942-1960, their last but one record out of their 100+
releases

The Browns (Oct. 1959, RCA 7614)

Patrice & Mario (1960, EP Odéon 2285, French version "Plum' au vent")

Hula Star

Loudermilk / Wilkin

Bailes, one of the 4 singing Bailes brothers, was a 1940s-1950s C&W veteran;
label shot, spells Johnny Bailes, though the singer's name more often
seems to be spelled Johnnie.The recording features Jerry Byrd on steel

Johnny Bailes (Oct. 1959, Decca 30999)

Lost In A Small Café

Grammer gave Monument its first hit with the original version of "Gotta Travel On", a folk/country classic.
1959 LP cover, though the album's title
was Travelin' On, Grammer's hit wasn't on that album. Later releases of the LP did include the track but then
Lost In A Small Café was left out.

Release by The Gross Brothers, three country/ gospel boys from Rising Sun, Indiana, twins Jerry and Larry, younger brother Jamie.
The record came in picture sleeve. The song I'd Live on Worms is a Cedarwood copyrighted song written in 1959.
The release of the cover by the Gross Brothers must been around 1967-1970

The Gross Brothers (±1969, Rich-R-Tone 8025)

Hey Ma (Hide The Daughter)

Good, catchy song about a traveling salesman visiting a farmhouse back in the woods

→ Release by The Gross Brothers. The record came in picture sleeve, song title now spelled "Hey Maw"

A very dancable song. The French-Spanish cover by José Francis turned it into a calypso.
John D. told Mike Reid (in his book "From Major to Minor"):
"Angela Jones was a girl I met when I took a course in ballroom dancing to try to become a teacher.
I wrote that song using her name as a title, but I never found out what she thought about it
as I never saw her again from that day to this".

Johnny Ferguson was a real one-hit wonder artist. His "Angela Jones" peaked at #27 in Billboard's US hitparade.
Ferguson, born 1937 in Nashville, worked as a radio announcer for WNAH, WAGG and WSM-TV in Tennessee and WJAT in Georgia
Michael Cox' British cover, a Joe Meek production, charted at #7 in the UK.

Three European covers, José Francis (France, 1960, by a Paris born son of Spanish parents), Robert Cogoi (France, 1963)
and Hanny & Adry (Netherlands, 1965):

Contrary to what some sources say, the song is NOT inspired by the 1933 play by Erskine Caldwell,
but based on a place in East Durham that Loudermilk knew well in his youth. The song is partly autobiographical, partly not.
Tobacco Road actually was a grassy strip in East Durham, where hogsheads of tobacco were rolled down to the warehouse.
So rough that the police would not venture there at night.
Read the interesting blog
about the place.
Loudermilk wasn't "born in that dump", nor "mamma died" and he never saw "daddy got drunk".
But he knew Tobacco Road's reputation and actually saw it from a teenage job delivering telegrams,
"to take money orders down there every saturday night and everybody would all be drunked up"
(Info based on the booklet of the Bear-cd).

Tobacco Road in fact was Marvin's Alley, a street in East Durham that's now called Morven Place.
In the 1950s, the alley was a crime haven, dominated by prostitution and gambling.

I was born in a dump....JDL's birthplace s at 8th and C streets in West Durham NC.
JDL lived as a kid in this house, on Dezern Place, West Durham.
(pics from the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association Web site).
Later, John lived in Few Gardens in East Durham.

Tobacco Road originally was done as a folk song.
Listen to a sample (Southern Folklife Collection)

Loudermilks first Columbia-version
still is one of the best performances of the song. Strong and sober. But the 45 rpm release didn't sell.
At the time, Billboard considered it the B-side of Loudermilk's release (Midnight Bus as A-side),
and wrote:Interesting tale of a back-shack existence. The tune has a minor flavor
employing a repetitive figure. Loudermilk wrote the tune and handles it with conviction.

Only place in the world where the record sold a little was Brisbane, Australia, where it reached a #27
position on the charts in 1960, though the flip Midnight Bus was chosen as the A-side at the time.

Loudermilk later re-recorded Tobacco Road for his RCA and WB albums in a more country way.

Lou Rawls gave the song a soulful treat, the UK band The Nashville Teens gave it the beat treatment, and afterwards the
Jefferson Airplane, who knew the Lou Rawls version, recorded it and turned the song into
a rock standard in the sixties. An endless string of rock, blues, garage, beat,
punk etc versions since then have been recorded.
Little Michael Jackson sang it on the audition sessions of The Jackson Five for Motown in 1968 (video of it circulating).
In recent years many blues versions of the song came out.

I was born in a dump,
Mamma died and daddy got drunk,
Left me here to die or grow
In the middle of Tobacco Road.
Wo wo wo
Grew up in a rusty shack,
All I owned was hangin' on my back.
Only you know how I loathe
This place called Tobacco Road,
But it's home.
The only life I've ever known
Only you know how I loathe
Tobacco Road

Gonna leave get a job
With the help and the grace from above
Save my money get rich I know,
Bring it back to Tobacco Road.
Wo wo wo
Bring dynamite and a crane,
Blow it up, start all over again.
Build a town, be proud to show,
Give the name Tobacco Road
But it's home.
The only life I've ever known
I despise you 'cos you're filthy,
But I love you 'cos you're home.

(source: Country Hall of Fame No4 John D. Loudermilk)

That's how the lyrics were published in the Loudermilk songbook.
Loudermilk, and almost everybody else, sings 'm different at some points:
Only Lord knows instead of Only you know,
grace from above becomes grace from God, the "dump" in line 1 sounds more like "lump"
(Status Quo even sang here "bunk")
and the "wo wo wo" is left out..

The Lords (1964), rock band from Berlin, Germany, in 1964 considered as "German Beatles", recorded
a German version of Tobacco Road. Next: 45 release by Restless (UK, 1987)

The Gamblers (1965, Deutsche Beat with Mathew Fisher, later Procul Harum, on organ) and The New Scorpions (1966, UK group popular in Holland)

Japanese release of Nashville Teens version and UK group Albatross (1975)

A rare live EP by old Arkansas' rocker Billy Lee Riley at the Whisky A-Go-Go (1965) and the
early (1960/61) EP-release by English country singer Frank Ifield

Australian group released their 1987 single So Many Times b/w Tobacco Road in a eye-catching, two-sided picture sleeve

A 45 by Greenwich Park, an Italian band on a 1971 release for the Swiss market,
a high-pitched screamin' version with some wild improvised lyrics, and the cover of Brother Jack McDuff's Dutch single release

German garage band, the Dukes and their 1988 single's release

and a collage of LP's containing Tobacco Road:

Dick Rivers, born Hervé Forneri, rocker from France, sang the song with French lyrics

Don Fardon, born Donald Maughm from Coventry, UK, who had his biggest success with the cover of Loudermilk's Indian Reservation,
recorded it on a 1969 compilation album

The Blue Grass Gentlemen on an early (1962) album, a good country/ blue grass version

Remarkable song: George Hamilton IV confessing to have assisted to a lynching gang
to hang a man. Lyrics include a reference to
the old gospel "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord": Lord, sometimes it causes me to tremble

George Hamilton IV (Feb. 1960, ABC 10090)

In 1959 three young Norwegian actor-sailor-singers who worked for the motion picure "Windjammer"
formed The Windjammers, and recorded an album for RCA. On the album two unique Loudermilk covers can be found, see below.
How did the group come to record these songs?

Sven Libaek, one of the Windjammers, wrote me:
John Loudermilk and Chet Atkins were instrumental in signing The Windjammers to the RCA label
at the time, and John and Chet produced the album.
Jack Clement was credited as "producer" on the album, however the whole album would never have happened
without John and Chet and in real terms they were the producers.
"March of the Vikings" was written specially for us. "Beatnik Bill", from memory,
I think was a song that John had previously written, and he felt it suited us.
The Norwegian lyrics in "March" are based on an old Norwegian folk song.
It is actually a pretty funny story. The line: "Kjerringa klipte lurvetufsa si" actually means:
"The old woman clipped her goat" - however, with a bit of imagination, the word "lurvetufsa",
which in the song refers to her "goat", could also refer to a very private part of her body,
and of course Norwegians have a lot of imagination. We had a lot of fun singing it live
in English speaking countries, as we would always find out if there were any Norwegians
in the audience when the burst of laughter would reverberate throughout the venue.
All the English lyrics were of course Loudermilk's.
It was a great thrill to work with those two legends. Chet Atkins actually played on several
tracks on the album and the rest of the extra musicians just improvised around
the already existing Windjammer arrangements without any music being written out.
They told us to sing the songs to them once, and off they went.
We were very impressed with it all at the time.Sven Libaek was to become an important composer, arranger, producer, orchestral leader in Australia.
He recorded over 30 albums.

March of the Vikings

The Windjammers (1959, LP The Windjammers)

Beatnik Bill

The Windjammers (1959, LP The Windjammers)

In 1960 Loudermilk moved from Universal/Cedarwood to Acuff/Rose publishing company.
To next part, 1960-1963 RCA, Hickory, Nashville Acuff-Rose years